ONE OF THE MOST SOUGHT-AFTER OF AMERICAN CHILDREN’S BOOKS: FIRST EDITIONS OF BOTH PARTS OF LITTLE WOMEN, HANDSOMELY BOUND

ALCOTT, Louisa May. Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy. WITH: Little Women, Part Second. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1868-69. Two volumes. 12mo, early 20th-century full brown calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, black morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt.

First edition, first issue, of Little Women, “an outstanding achievement of 19th-century American literature,” together with the first edition, second state, of Little Women, Part Second, handsomely and uniformly bound by Zaehnsdorf.

In 1865, while serving as editor of Merry Museum, a Boston children’s magazine, Alcott received encouragement to write a book for girls. Drawing on memories of childhood, the author portrayed the daily lives of Amy, Jo, Beth and Meg March—portraits of the four Alcott sisters. One of the most popular juvenile books ever published, “Little Women is an outstanding achievement of 19th-century American literature, and the first children’s novel written in that country to have become an enduring classic.” “It is one of the first fictional texts for children to convey the difficulties and anxieties of girlhood, and… suggests that becoming a ‘little woman’ is a learned and often fraught process, not an instinctual or natural condition of female development” (Foster & Simon, 87). Published separately in consecutive years, the first part of Little Women “did not sell at first. Part Second was therefore also issued in a small edition, but it went like wildfire, and pulled Part First along with it” (Grolier 74). The original issues of each part are therefore quite rare. Each volume is illustrated with a frontispiece and three plates; those in the first part of Little Women were created by the author’s sister, May. First issue of Little Women with all points, including Little Women priced at $1.25 in terminal advertisements; Part Second is second state, with notice about Part First on page [iv] and four entries on page [366], and with “Handy Volume Series” followed by “I.” and “Happy Thoughts.” BAL 158, 159. Grolier, American 100 74. Morocco bookplates of book collector, banker, and author Harold Murdock.

Text quite nice, only light wear mainly to joints and spines. A lovely copy in near-fine condition.